Mano Sundaresan, Pitchfork
💭 Thoughts on Ursula Le Guin’s Changing Planes, Cash Cobain, and just committing to ideas that bring you joy.
Mano Sundaresan joined Pitchfork in July 2024 as their new Head of Editorial Content. Before that, he was running his own music blog, No Bells, and producing podcasts at NPR. He is an avid Celtics fan but admits they have zero aura right now.
🎯 Current focus
I’ve had so much fun planning this week’s slate of Pitchfork year-events with AdHoc. Last night’s Thought Enthusiast “mixtape” event was truly strange and wonderful, pitting some of our hallowed critics against fans and industry folks. Tonight, we put together the DJ lineup of my dreams, now happening at Brooklyn’s Paragon nightclub. Tickets for that are available here. I’m just excited in general for a new era of Pitchfork as we enter 2025 and these events give me that feeling.
📚 Ursula Le Guin’s short story collection Changing Planes
I’ve spent maybe more time languishing in airports this year than I have my whole life, so it was a blessing to stumble upon this book by Ursula Le Guin that transforms that dullest liminal space into a realm of possibility. The premise is that by contorting our bodies in a strangely specific way, we’ve figured out how to change planes of reality while stuck in airports. And because time is weird in different planes, we can spend days or weeks on another plane and make it back in time for that connecting flight. What follows is a series of characteristically hilarious and thought-provoking stories about different civilizations. It feels a bit like reading a totally made-up travelogue and it’s helped me escape the doldrums of stuffy airports.
What was supposed to be Cash Cobain’s coronation moment (allegedly, with a planned appearance from one superstar rapper) turned into a gloriously haphazard night that was even more iconic. After Irving Plaza was shut down by police, Cash led a parade of hundreds from Irving Plaza to Union Square Park. Boombox secured, he and his cohort of Slizzies and Slizzettes performed their legacy-cementing sexy drill songs for a turnt crowd of twenty-somethings. It felt perfectly tuned to the way I’ve heard Cash’s music all year: wafting from speakers in front of Caribbean spots, filling up the air like a natural phenomenon.
💡 Committing to the crazy idea that brings you joy.
I know it’s cliche but seriously…just do it. And for the love of god, “people will think it’s cringe” is not an excuse.
Did I listen to Mk.gee much in 2024? No, not really. But I appreciate how much people all around me seem to love his music, and how feverishly musicians are trying to crack the code of his washed-out guitar tone. And when I saw him live at Brooklyn Paramount, I was surprised to hear hundreds of people perfectly recite his slimy soup of lyrics, at times so smothered and incomprehensible that they feel more like sonic texture than actual words. That’s dedication.
Sometimes you just wanna watch some good old fashioned water cooler discourse. They’ve had some great debates on there including such favorites as “Qdoba Or Chipotle.”
Follow Mano on Linkedin, Instagram & X and check out his blog here.
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